XSLT Debugger Perspective

The XSLT Debugger perspective (Window > Open perspective > XSLT Debugger) allows you to detect problems in an XSLT transformation by executing the process step by step. The workspace is organized as an editing area assisted by special helper views. The editing area contains editor panels, allowing you to split it horizontally or vertically in a stack of XML editor panels and a stack of XSLT editor panels. The XML files and XSL files can be edited in Text mode only.

The layout of the XSLT Debugger perspective is composed of the following components:

Control toolbar - Contains all actions needed in order to configure and control the debug process.
Source document view - Displays and allows editing of data or document oriented XML files (documents).
Stylesheet document view - Displays and allows editing of XSL files (stylesheets).
Output document view - Displays the transformed output that results from the input of a selected document (XML) and selected stylesheet (XSL) to the transformer. The result of transformation is dynamically written as the transformation is processed. There are three types of views for the output: a text view (with XML syntax highlight), an XHTML view, and one text view for each xsl:result-document element used in the stylesheet (if it is a XSLT 2.0 / 3.0 stylesheet).
Information views - Distributed in two panes, they are displaying various types of information that can be used to understand the transformation process. For each information type there is a corresponding tab. While running a transformation, relevant events are displayed in the various information views. This allows you to obtain a clear view of the transformation progress.

You are able to add XPath expression automatically in the XWatch view using the Watch expression action from the contextual menu. In case you select an expression or a fragment of it and then click Watch expression in the contextual menu, the entire selection is presented in the XWatch view. Using Watch expression without selecting an expression displays the value of the attribute from the caret position in the XWatch view. Variables detected at the caret position are also displayed.

Note: Expressions displayed in the XWatch view are normalized (unnecessary white spaces are removed from the expression).